As the north end of the Vegas strip goes mad with multi-billion dollar developments, one thing has become increasingly clear – these new Vegas hotels and casinos are monsters! As if the existing hotels weren’t big enough, the new hotels currently under development are dwarfing their older neighbours.

As you can see from this shot, the Wynn already dominates the older Mirage, while the new Palazzo and Wynn Encore will be bigger still. Add Echelon Place and the 63-storey Fontainebleau to the mix, and the older hotels are in danger of disappearing beneath their shadows!

The irony is that The Mirage was one of the first mega-resorts to open way back in 1989, and made its own near-neighbours, such as the now-imploded Boardwalk, look puny in comparison. Now, it seems, The Mirage and hotels of its era are getting a taste of their medicine, as Vegas goes bigger still.

As you can see from the pic above, the new hotels around The Wynn are all around 640 foot tall, with the Encore at Wynn being the tallest of the lot at 653 feet. Both Echelon Place and the Fontainebleau should be taller still, while the Crown Las Vegas project that hasn’t begun construction yet, but is all set to go, will be a gigantic 1,888 foot monster – nearly twice the height of the Stratosphere.

Quite what this will do to the Vegas skyline is anyone’s guess. Tall towers give great views only as long there are no other tall towers between you and the view! With every new building going up fighting to be bigger than the last, each new hotel could drown out the view it’s trying so hard provide.

That said, these huge new behemoths will certainly provide a fascinating new skyline as you look north up the strip. If they’re successful, though, I can’t help but wonder just how long the now-tiny looking older players, such as The Mirage and Treasure Island, have left before their owners think that blowing them up and building even taller buildings in their place would be a much more profitable use of the land on which they sit!